Carl Frampton challenges Froch and Eubank Jr to a bet following criticism
Carl Frampton, at the relatively advanced age of 30, has made massive changes to his training approach recently.
The Belfast featherweight has changed trainers, leaving Shane McGuigan in London and linking up with Jamie Moore in Manchester.
While former Irish, British, Commonwealth, and European light middleweight champion Moore has repeatedly stressed that he will not try to change Frampton too much – there are some big differences in the camps.
As had been publicised earlier, the amount of sparring done by Frampton [23(14)-1(0)] has been dramatically cut. The Tiger’s Bay boxer, guarding against burnout and protecting his own health, is sparring half as much as previously for his upcoming fight against Horacio Garcia in Belfast on Saturday November 18th.
The switch has led to questions from some figures in boxing who do not believe that reducing sparring is a good idea, indeed some big names believe that Frampton is making a mistake.
Frampton though has stressed that his previous levels of sparring were unprecedented, and jokingly challenged his doubters – namely Carl Froch and Chris Eubank Jr – to a bet regarding their respective camps.
Speaking yesterday on Second Captains, Frampton noted how “I’m not sparring as much and there’s a lot being spoken about this. A few big names have mentioned it – Chris Eubank Jr and Carl Froch are saying it’s a bad idea to reduce your rounds of sparring – but they don’t know how many rounds of sparring I was doing at the start.”
“I was doing 220 rounds of sparring, which is crazy numbers. And a lot of the time with big men. When you talk to other boxers about this they kind of look at you in shock. No-one else was sparring that amount of rounds.”
“You have this warrior mentality. Guys like Froch, he just likes to say things – and Eubank as well. I would expect people to say stuff like that.”
“I would have a bet with any of them that they weren’t doing 220 rounds of sparring per camp with bigger guys – sometimes I’d go up to welterweight in terms of sparring partners, big, big men compared to me, I think I sparred light middles before as well.”
“I’d fancy my chances if me, Froch, and Eubank Jr had a bet over who sparred the most rounds in camp.”
Frampton is really feeling the benefit of his less intense camp and described how “I’ve reduced the amount of sparring I’ve done, which is a little easier on my body.”
“I just feel fresher, I feel injury free, and I feel as fit, I feel as sharp and as fit as I was when I was sparring 200-plus rounds in previous camps.”
“I’ve no injuries. Before I was constantly walking around with little niggles. I’m putting a lot into every session now because I’m doing it injury free.”
Listen to Carl Frampton on Second Captains in full below:
Frampton’s interview came on the Second Captains free Monday podcast.
